Celebrating International Women’s Day, USD 383 Board President Jurdene Coleman read the recognition and proclamation celebrating the “collective power of women, women’s achievements, recognizing [their]challenges, focusing of greater attention on women’s rights and gender equality, encouraging and mobilizing all people to do their part to bring about positive change.”

Representing the American Association of University Women (AAUW), Manhattan Commissioner Usha Reddi announced the organization celebrates their sixth year of community dialogues for International Women’s Day, and was very fortunate.

“This is a very important day for us, and International Women’s Day is huge, mainly because we still haven’t met the need of gender equity, not only in the city of Manhattan, but globally. Everybody’s still working on all of the equality rights that we need to have,” Reddi said. “This year we are going to have a representative from Kenya, Iran, Jamaica, and Argentina. So they’re all living in our community, some of them are doctoral students at K state and some of them are community members. And it’s wonderful to share their culture, why they came to the United States, the traditions, differences, advantages, challenges, and just a wonderful dialogue and discussion.”

Inviting all of the community to zoom in and join the conversation, the AAUW will hold the event on March 8, at 7 P.M.

Following the Bi-weekly Construction update, Assistant Superintendent Eric Reid said initial job placements were given to all the sixth grade teachers at both middle schools. As Reid understands these positions may change as openings arise later, his staff are attempting to find these teachers a sturdy foundation they then can work from.

“When we know that we have the boundaries approved, we’re in process of taking the boundaries and putting them into the computer, then we can say, ‘Okay, I’ll have this many in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade, fourth grade,’ then we’ll be able to see how many sections we need at each of the 10 buildings across the district,” Reid said. “And then we’ll work on finding a home base for all the current elementary teachers, so then we’ll find out the holes we have, and I’m sure some people will say, ‘I’d like to fill that hole, I’d like to fill up that one’, or we’ll be able to hire new people.”

As the meeting progressed, USD 383 Board Members approved, on first reading, a 2021-22 Calendar Adoption proposal based upon the original 2020-21 calendar before adjustments were made during COVID-19, including the calendar change previously made to reduce days and add time to each day to aid construction schedules, to help accommodate the high number of classroom moves that are needed over the summer.

2020-2021 District Calendar
Courtesy of USD 383

Providing a summary of each of the three levels, high school, middle school, and elementary school, this composite calendar follows the schedule for all three levels and a summary of calendar dates for 2021-22. Included in the proposal, all teachers will have a float work day prior to the date they are to report for the first day of their contract.

Stating the community’s desire to return to normalcy due to the decrease in COVID numbers and overall weariness of wearing masks, Vice President Kristin Brighton spoke how personally she believes the steps have not been taken to progress yet.

“Even on my way in tonight, I listened to the CDC director Rochelle Paula Walensky, she’s just a month into her new job, and was saying, Texas, Mississippi, and several states are starting to get rid of their Mask Mandates,” Brighton said. “I know that the city commission discussed this last night and they’re working it out with the county, I would just throw in my hat in the ring, and say I really hope that we see the city and the county work to some agreement to extend the mask ordinance, at least at the end of the school year, it would certainly help 383 and K-State both continue with their policies.”

Joining her was Board Member Katrina Lewison who expressed she was very proud of the school district and the provisions that they’ve taken to be able to bring students back in the classroom, five days a week.

“I want us to stay the course so that our students and our faculty stay safe, and we can continue the year, as we don’t know what the next school year is going to bring. We heard the student council president talk about how excited she is about prom, and I think that we need to have cautious optimism,” Lewison said. “We have one sitting right here, who is so much healthier being back in school five days a week, and I don’t want that to end. So I was a little bit concerned to see the news this week about potentially dropping the discussion about the Mask Mandate. So at least in our school district, I want us to do what we can to continue to have safety in our schools.”

As USD 383 revisited Resolution No. 2021-13, providing for the sale, issuance and delivery of Taxable General Obligation Refunding Bonds, the district announced refinancing provided 8 million dollars in projected savings over the life of the bonds versus earlier estimates of 6 million dollars .

Treasurer Lew Faust, asking to finalize and move forward with 2021 refinancing, says current estimates showcase over 17 million dollars in total savings since 2011.

“We discussed what happened last Tuesday, whether or not to proceed, as market conditions have been kind of variable, we made the decision to go forward, and we roll the dice right?… Everything went well, and the action before you was just to approve the sale and closing of those bonds and finalize everything,” Faust said. “Again, the rates are there, but it went very well and really better than we could have projected or predicted. In fact, the next two days after that interest rates went back up, so somehow, just by a stroke of luck, we hit it on probably the best day that we could have been out in the market last week.”

In other business Wednesday, board members voted 7-0 for final approval authorizing purchases for bond projects. Those items considered were:

  •  Final approval to move forward with the data cabling at Manhattan High School – West Campus additions in the amount of $207,706 from McCown Gordon Construction and increasing the guaranteed maximum price to $27,410,062
  • Final approval for the guaranteed maximum price package with BHS Construction in the amount of $6,674,152 for additions and renovations to the existing Eugene Field Early Learning Center
  • Final approval to purchase the racking system for the district warehouse from ULINE in the
    amount of $36,666
  • Final approval for computer desktop equipment purchases from Cybertron Computers of
    Wichita, KS in the amount of $29,670
  • Final approval to the bid for network wiring at Frank Bergman Elementary from Pugh
    Communications (a Division of Economy Electric, Inc.), in the amount of $49,990
  • Final approval for the purchase of installed projectors from Cytek Media Systems of
    Topeka, KS through the State of Kansas Contract #36413 in the amount of $247,330
  • Final approval to have Internet access provided by WTC of Wamego, KS in the
    amount of $4,325 per month ($51,900 for 12 months) pre-E-Rate reimbursement
  • Final approval for Wide Area Network access provided by Unite Private Networks
    in the amount of $14,490 per month (pre-e-Rate reimbursement) for a total of $14,490 per month ($173,880 for 12 months)
  • Approve the agreement with Varney & Associates, CPAs, LLC for a maximum fee of
    $19,800 per year for the district’s financial audit for the following three years: FY 2021, FY 2022
    and FY 2023
  • Final approval to move forward with the amended guaranteed maximum price for Change
    Order #02 for Frank Bergman Elementary Phase 2/B with BHS Construction in the amount of $118,160

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